Irish stew

In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, I’ve decided to post something which is of Irish origin and probably their most popular dish so far, the Irish stew.

Irish stew is a traditional food of Ireland made from lamb/mutton, potatoes, onions, and parsley. But several variations exist now where barley, carrots, turnips and even stout beer are added. This is then boiled and simmered slowly for up to two hours to extract the good flavours out of the meat and bones.

Irish stew is a product of long history and started since after the seventh century BC during the Celtic invasion of Ireland. Since then they started to possess bronze cauldrons for cooking stews. During that time it was the dominant cooking tool in ancient Ireland, hence you see a lot of different stews that originated in there. Then in 16th century, potatoes which is the key ingredient in this dish was introduced from South America and that gave birth to the Irish stew that we know of this time.